Cruz led “Republicans into traffic and wandered away”

As the saying goes, success has many fathers but failure is an orphan. Ted Cruz may find few willing to adopt him at this rate. After a couple of quieter days more or less out the Klieg lights, conservatives are refocusing their angst on the junior Senator from Texas. They’re not happy that he stirred up this hornet’s nest for political profit, presumably knowing he couldn’t deliver.

But what really has them pissed, Cruz is raising large sums of money to fund his Senate Conservatives Fund, and using it to run oppo hits against fellow conservatives. Some of Cruz’s victims are lining up for the kill shot anonymously and some are willing to pitch in by name. :

Politico — At the Wednesday lunch, Cruz was asked what he would have done had GOP senators united to filibuster the House bill. “He kept trying to change the subject because he never could answer the question,” the senator said. “It’s pretty evident it’s never been about a strategy – it’s been about him. That’s unfortunate. I think he’s done our country a major disservice. I think he’s done Republicans a major disservice.”

In the run-up to the Tuesday deadline to fund the government, Cruz continued to press the anti-Obamcare fight, lobbying House conservatives to stiffen Boehner’s spine despite the prospects of a government shutdown. The speaker responded with bill after bill taking aim at pieces of the health care law. But Senate Democrats rejected each one up until the final hours of Monday night, prompting the first government shutdown since 1996.

Many Senate Republicans publicly and privately scoffed at the Cruz tactics, arguing that he was making a false and politically damaging promise that he could use the funding bill to gut Obamacare. … “The entire effort has been totally disingenuous,” the senator said.

Cruz was instrumental in selling the Teaparty base on the idea that not only could they win and get Obamacare shutdown with a government shutdown, but that they would win. Now, thanks to Cruz, they fully expect to pull it off and they think the nation is on their side, when in fact the reverse is true on both issues in a major way: Obamacare is already enrolling people via dozens of websites staggering under enormous traffic, and crushing majorities say they don’t want the government shut down over defunding Obamacare. House and Senate Republicans returning home to gerrymandered hyper-conservative districts will eventually have to answer to a segment of the electorate that’s not interested in legislative nuance or factual explanations, especially when it contradicts their cherished delusions.

Cruz is a predatory sociopath. One who has developed an unquenchable thirst for easy money and growing power, one who is cunning enough to realize his biggest competition for wingnut welfare and hero worship are fellow conservatives bilking the same crowd. One who is ruthless enough to eliminate members of his own caucus at the drop of a hat. Mainstream Republicans should be afraid of Cruz, he’s out-grifting them by an order of magnitude and sucking up grass-roots contributions they think should be theirs, he’s hijacked the carefully crafted misinformation apparatus they built up over two generations and enlisted it to serve his interests only, and he’s wrecking it for the rest of them in the process.

Grover Norquist is much more of a realist, he seeks legislative results. He’s also fairly single-mined and passionate about his sole issue, cutting taxes, especially for the rich and grateful. Since there’s little in the way of tax cuts here and potential for a huge political setback for the guys that do most of the tax cutting, Norquist is not amused by Cruz’s shenanigans:

TPM — “He said if the House would simply pass the bill with defunding he would force the Senate to act. He would lead this grass-roots movement that would get Democrats to change their mind. So the House passed it, it went to the Senate, and Ted Cruz said, oh, we don’t have the votes over here.”

“And I can’t find the e-mails or ads targeting Democrats to support it,” Norquist added. “Cruz said he would deliver the votes and he didn’t deliver any Democratic votes. He pushed House Republicans into traffic and wandered away.”

Comments

As I have stated over and over again, Cruz is the most dangerous man in the Rethuglican Party. He combines very high intelligence with a capacity for demagoguery that would make Frankenberger, Long, and McCarthy envious. He further has the unique capacity to make totally off the wall statements sound reasonable. He is to be taken lightly at our peril.

Anyone who writes him off as a candidate for the Rethuglican Party presidential nomination at this point in time because of the animosity of some of his fellow Rethuglicans in the Congress is whistling Dixie.

I’m not sure if I buy the Ted Cruz, super genius idea. He’s not stupid, but there’s plenty of smart people in DC. What sets him apart is recklessness, with a special disregard for the fate of others in his own party. He’s taking big chances with the GOP brand for long shot narrow gains to himself. It remains to be seen if that’s smart or not. Historically, it usually turns into a flash in the pan gang-tackle kinda thing.

This is a man who wouldn’t study with people who went to “minor Ivies” in law school. This is a man who spends all of his waking hours tabulating status points, and the fact that all the degrees in the world can’t buy you the kind of casual charisma of a Barack Obama or a Wendy Davis has got to chap his hide.

So yeah, it strikes me as unlikely to be a coincidence that just a few short months after a state senator from his own state got national attention and adoration for holding a genuine filibuster against a massive bill to restrict health care access, Cruz is going to hold a fake filibuster against a massive bill to expand health care access? No, it is not a coincidence. That his people made sure to get the press to mention the color of his sneakers confirms it.

Brilliant or not, toxic ego can still leach all reason out of a person. We’ve seen it often enough.